Chicago's own PROFESSOR EMERITUS is back with their sophomore album ''A Land Long Gone'', eight years after heir much heralded debut release ''Take Me to the Gallows''. I already reviewed the incredible FER DE LANCE album a few days back and two of their members were part of PROFESSOR EMERITUS' first album so I have high hopes for what this album will offer!

Esteban Julian Pena definitely has a very unique voice, something you don't hear that often, some sort of Operatic Doom Metal booming voice, à la MOONSPELL with a bit of CANDLEMASS maybe? It's hard to classify come to think it, like on ''Defeater'' he sounds a bit like Zakk Stevens from SAVATAGE or even Harry Conklin from THE THREE TREMORS/JAG PANZER. He feels a bit like a chameleon throughout this new album, ranging from US Power Metal to old school Doom Metal, without any real effort, very seamless talent!

As far as the songwriting goes, it's moderately dynamic in terms of maintaining a nice balance with simplicity while still delivering a variety of eye-catching ideas that really give a nice punch to this album as a whole. For heavy metal rookies such as PROFESSOR EMERITUS, I find it very hard to believe that they are such a young band, because their performance on this album, as well as all the provided riffs, melodies, guitar solos and choruses, sounds so unbelievably fresh that you would think that this is a newly formed band, while in reality being one of the key players in the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal.

It really goes without saying that the result is a matter of dedication and being passionate in what you do, which is a seldom seen these days where you get a lot of mediocrity and uninspiring outputs that really aren't worthy of your attention, but in the case of PROFESSOR EMERITUS, it's the exact opposite. What stood out to me about the album, apart from the amazing songwriting, is the cover art which showcases an ominous witchfinder looking mountain, that reminded me of mid 90's Doom and Black Metal album covers, and I think that the overall artstyle and depiction perfectly matches the vibe of the band.